Page:Old Castles.djvu/53

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
Carlisle Castle.
45

of his having been confined in these dungeons, yet his followers, as well as others, may still gain some instruction by coming to see where he preached.

A century after this, in 1745, the "Young Pretender," Charles Edward Stuart, came hither from Scotland with an army of nine thousand men, and laid siege to the city on the 9th of November, demanding its instant surrender in the name of his father. On the 15th the gates of the city were opened to him, and his father was proclaimed king at the Cross. This done, they marched southward as far as Warwickshire, contemplating, in their hour of victory, the subduction of the metropolis. But other and sadder fortunes awaited them. The Duke of Cumberland was already in the field as their opponent, and at Derby they found three armies in front of them. Charles Edward, perhaps wisely for him, following the counsels of his officers, at once retreated before these forces, taking the direct way back to Carlisle, the Duke and his ponderous army all pursuing. The Prince's army arrived in Carlisle on the 19th of December, after some severe skirmishing at Penrith the previous day. The Duke followed hard after, and, in the interval of eleven days, Carlisle, with little loss, was once more in the hands of his majesty King George. During this interval the city had been besieged, the fire of the besiegers being directed "wholly against the Castle," which the Duke in scorn had called "a miserable hencoop," and which Lord Murray, of the Prince's army, would have blown up, if his own will had been done, ere the Prince's party left it. The castle was in fact the great scene of action during all this disastrous time.